


The Perfect Friendship

by sphinxvictorian



Category: Desk Set (1957)
Genre: F/F, Female Friendship, First Meetings, First Time, Girls Kissing, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 09:42:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13051437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sphinxvictorian/pseuds/sphinxvictorian
Summary: Peg and Bunny become best friends while rooming together, and find common ground in more ways than one.





	The Perfect Friendship

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mlraven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlraven/gifts).



“Hey, Peg!  Ya got a new one!”

“A new what, Petey? A new hole in my head?”

“Nah, well, you got one a those too, but nah, you got a new roomie.  Mrs. Mahoney showed her the room this morning, she took it right away, and she’s comin’ with her stuff real soon.”

Peg looked down over the banister at the boy standing in the hallway, a slingshot trailing out of one pocket and a cheeky grin on his face.

“Yeah?  Is that so?  Well, I think you should be minding your own business, Petey.  Now get along home to your ma.”

The boy blew a raspberry in her direction, but slouched towards the door anyway.

Peg continued on up the stairs to the first floor landing and down the dingy but clean hallway to her door.  It stood half open and she could hear the sounds of drawers opening and closing and furniture shifting.

She poked her head around the door, to see a tall gangly young woman moving briskly about the side of the room that wasn’t Peg’s.  A large steamer trunk stood upright and half-empty right behind the door, making it hard for Peg to push in past it.

“That’s a pretty large trunk, I think I should start yelling “Porter!” just so I can get into our room,” she joked.

The flurry of movement stopped and her new roommate turned to her.  “Is that a Fred and Ginger reference?”

“It might be.  Hiya, I’m Peg Costello, looks like we’re bunking in together.”  She stuck out her hand to one side of the steamer trunk.

With a big grin, the woman took her hand and shook it once very firmly.  “I’m Bunny Watson.  I know, it’s a ridiculous nickname, but my real first name is even more ridiculous, and I’ll have to know you quite a bit better before I tell you what it is.  Now, help me muscle this behemoth closer to my side of the room, if you don’t mind.”

For such a stringbean, she’s pretty strong, thought Peg admiringly, as Bunny took most of the weight of the trunk as they shifted it awkwardly towards her bed.  In fact, at first glance, there was a lot to admire about her new companion.  Blue eyes, a mop of auburn curls, and a quite stunning dress sense, to judge from some of the clothes still in the trunk and also laid out on the bed.  Fashionable but not very expensive, many of them expertly handmade, and a few really expensive pieces that Peg had only ever seen on her few forays down Fifth Avenue.

Having settled the trunk in a better place, Peg hung up her hat and coat on a peg next to her bed. 

“You new to the city, Bunny?”

“Oh, gracious no, went to Barnard for four years, so I had lots of time to get my Connecticut small town self used to this big sprawling place.”

“Well, well, a Barnard girl.  I am impressed,” Peg said, teasingly.  “What did you study?”

“English Literature.”

“Oh, well, that’s just gonna set you up for life.  You a schoolteacher now?”

“No, librarian, archivist in point of fact, but only just got hired.”

Peg narrowed her eyes at the coincidence.  “Well, ain’t that just crazy!  Me too!  After all these years of barely getting by, I got a job at FBN in their research department just last month.  I was gonna have to leave the boarding house and go home, if I didn’t get this job.”

Bunny sat down suddenly, her mouth slightly agape.  “Crazy isn’t the half of it,” she said, slowly.  “That’s the same place that just hired me.”

Their eyes met and then they started laughing, and didn’t stop for a good couple of minutes.  By the end of those couple of minutes, their friendship had begun.

The next day was Bunny’s first day at FBN.  Peg had already done her brief day of training with the managing director Mrs. Barkley, so she was able to fill Bunny in on the peculiarities of their new supervisor.

“She’s not a hundred percent Mother Superior, but she’s not a barrel of laughs.  Lucky thing is, she spends most of her time in her office, doing the trickier research jobs for the news department.  We only really hear from her if we get too loud in the reference room, or if the books are misshelved.  She hates that.  But she seems to be pretty fair, and I think she’d go to bat for any of us girls.”

Bunny finished the cup of warm milk she’d coaxed out of Mrs. Mahoney after dinner.  “Well, nice to have someone in our corner, I guess.”  Bunny yawned and settled down into bed.  “Well, that milk’s done its usual magic.  Good night, Peg.”

“Night, Bunny.”  Peg laid there for a while after she’d switched off her bedside lamp.  She hadn’t had any warm milk, couldn’t stand the stuff.  Besides, it had been an exciting day.  Dinner with the rest of the girls at the boarding house had been enlivened for both of them by Peg keeping up a running whispered commentary on the other boarders. 

She found she really liked making Bunny laugh.  It would start as a sort of wicked chuckle, and then she’d let out a raspy kind of horsey laugh as she got the joke.  Those blue eyes would sparkle and the red curls would bounce around her slightly square jaw, and her cheekbones would round a little and she just lit up. 

Peg fell asleep, thinking of that laughing face.

 

The next day they rode the Number 15 bus to the office.  Peg introduced Bunny to everyone they saw: Eddie, the hotdog salesman, Duke the newspaper guy, Edna at the reception desk, and Bernie, Peg’s favorite elevator man.  She had started to introduce her to the cleaning lady, when Bunny stopped her, laughing.

“Mercy, Peg, mercy!  I promise I’ll remember them all, but not if you don’t slow down a bit!”

“Ah, come on, you’ve got to be on your toes around here, Bunny!” Peg teased.

They came through the doors still laughing, but Peg quickly quieted them both as they came into the office, as they could see Mrs. Barkley at the door of her office, looking like the strictest of schoolmarms.

Peg gave Bunny the smallest of shoves forward, and Bunny straightened up and became the picture of respect and solemnity. 

Through the glass of Mrs. Barkley’s office walls, Peg watched her put Bunny through her paces.  She could tell by the pleased look on Mrs. Barkley’s face that Bunny was doing well. 

Millie, who sat at the desk opposite Peg’s, turned around and then back to Peg.  “Gee, Barkley’s really liking this new girl.  I think I saw the corners of her mouth almost turn up for about two seconds.  You two are rooming together, huh?”

“Yeah, she just moved in yesterday.  English major from Barnard, two years at the Columbia Library Science department.  Was going for a PhD, but the moolah ran out, she didn’t say why.”

“Well, well, Barnard and Columbia.  She was rolling in it, wasn’t she?” The other girl, Doris, sounded a tiny bit jealous.

Peg shrugged.  “Yeah, I guess so.  But she doesn’t have any airs about it, she’s really one of us, ladies.”

“If you say so, Peg.”  Doris went back to typing the letter she’d been working on.

The phone rang on Peg’s desk and she answered it.  “Reference Library, Peg Costello speaking.  The height of the Empire State Building?  One thousand two hundred and fifty feet.  Yes, that includes the airship mast.  You’re welcome.”

“How many times does that make, Peg?”

“Fifteen this week.  It’s been open for 5 years, you’d think they’d stop being curious by now!”

Just then the door of Mrs. Barkley’s office opened, and Mrs. Barkley came out, followed by Bunny. 

“Peg, please acquaint Miss Watson with the organization of the books,” Mrs. Barkley commanded, then turned to Bunny to add, “The library isn’t anything you won’t have become familiar with from your coursework at college, Miss Watson, but a refresher is always helpful, I find.”

Bunny nodded gravely, then flashed Peg a quick smile, before turning back to her new supervisor.  “Thank you very much, Mrs. Barkley, for my first round of training.  I do hope that you will be satisfied with my performance.”

“We shall see, Miss Watson, but I must say, I am encouraged by this morning’s example of your knowledge and capabilities.  Just follow the example of my girls here, and you will progress quickly, I have no doubt.  After you’ve shown her the library, Peg, you can acquaint her with the rest of the offices and amenities.  Now if you will excuse me…”

“Of course, thank you again, Mrs. Barkley,” Bunny said and received an approving nod before Mrs. Barkley went back inside her office.

Peg did as she had been told, and was not amazed to see how quickly Bunny grasped the library organization and the card files.  She took her around to the offices that she would need to know about, like the news department, and let her take a peek in at the broadcast studios on the next floor up.  The lunch room with its rather perfunctory tables and overcrowded refrigerator and counters was next, and was the cue for Peg to give Bunny the tip that she was better to leave her lunch in her desk than anywhere near the refrigerator.

“I have been reliably informed that Conrad from payroll steals people’s food.”

A petite woman, who looked to be in her early 30’s, came towards them as they made their way back towards the elevator.  She would have been completely ordinary, except that she was wearing a flowing, Grecian style gown and a tiara.

She swept past them, head held high, ignoring them completely.  Peg saw Bunny’s questioning look and filled her in.

“That’s Violet Fielding.  She’s our trademark, been with the company since it started.  I heard they were redoing the company letterhead, she must be here to model for it.  Mind you, she’s two grapes short of a bunch, she always wears that gown, whenever she comes to work.  She’s the founder’s sister-in-law, so she gets away with it.”

Later that day, after an afternoon of Bunny learning more of the ropes, they made their way back to the boarding house. 

Dinner was bland but filling, and after an hour of playing cards with a couple of the other girls, Peg and Bunny made their way up to bed.

“So, how was it, your first day at FBN?” Peg asked, as she rubbed cold cream in to her face, removing the last vestiges of her makeup.

“I really think I’m going to love this job, Peg, I really do.  I have all this information buzzing around in my brain, all this learning that I hammered into it over my years at college, and at least some of it will actually be useful in this job.  I can’t tell you what a relief that is.  I mean, I just couldn’t see myself settling down with a husband and kids in some suburb in Connecticut.  Not that my parents did, either, bless them.  They still don’t.  My mother said she wouldn’t grieve if I never got married.  Of course, she probably wouldn’t say that if my sister Jane hadn’t already given her two grandchildren in quick succession.”  Bunny gave that wicked chuckle that Peg liked so much.

“Now, then, Peg Costello, we spent the entire evening last night talking about me and talking about our place of business.  I haven’t heard a word about you.  I demand you tell me everything, or at least as much as you can in the next hour before we drift off to sleep.”  Bunny grabbed a bag of toffees she’d bought on their lunch break and plopped herself down on the foot of Peg’s bed, handing the bag to Peg.  She pulled her knees up to her chin, and popped a toffee in her mouth, all attention.

Peg picked up the bag, then set it down.  Toffees would not be a good idea if she was supposed to be talking.  But part of her wanted the excuse to not talk about her background.  It wasn’t glamorous or even that interesting.  But those blue eyes were boring into her, so she leaned back against her pillows and started to talk.

“It’s no great shakes, Bunny, honestly.  My papa was Italian, my ma’s Irish.  He had a grocery store, it went bust, and he died a year later, when I was ten.  Ma did all kinds of different jobs, and my brother Paddy did a paper round.  I wanted to quit school and do my bit, but I had this teacher at school, Mrs. Brown.  She saw I had a few brains in my head, and she got me to think I could do something with them.  She helped me get a scholarship to NYU, and I got in, and was there for four years.  Got my degree, and then did a little secretary training on top of that.”

“Aha, that explains your excellent typing speed!”

“Yeah, I saw your hunting and pecking on that typewriter today.  I’ll help you speed up, if you want.” 

“Oh, would you?  That would be so helpful, thanks!  So after secretarial training, did you get a job right away?”

“Nah, with the world as it was five years ago?  I went back to live with Ma and Paddy, then I finally got work as a secretary at a clothing factory on Delancey Street.  One of my college friends’ dad owned it and she let me know he was looking, so I was there for four years.  I had to leave.”

Peg went silent, visions of Izzy Saperstein chasing her around the desk dancing in her brain. 

“Surely you weren’t let go?” Bunny prompted, taking another toffee from the bag.

“Nope, I quit.  A little too much attention from the boss’s son.”

Bunny closed her eyes and nodded sagely.  “I am sorry.  So then you found the job at FBN?”

“Yeah, like I told you, almost had to move home again.  And that would have been crazy-making, since Paddy got married last year and there’s his Anna and the baby now, all in a tiny little tenement.”

“Your poor mother!”

“Ah, she’s in her element.  Ma loves kids.  If Papa hadn’t died when he did, I’d probably have nine brothers and sisters by now!  So she’s fine, and once Anna’s back in health, she’ll be able to bring in some money.  I send in my bit too, it all helps.”

Bunny put out a hand and took Peg’s hand.  “Bless you.  You’re doing a wonderful thing.”

Peg found herself blushing, so she gave Bunny’s hand a quick squeeze, and changed the subject.  “Now get off my bed, Bun-bun, I wanna get some sleep.”

“Ooh, no, please, not Bun-bun,” Bunny protested, grimacing slightly.  “That makes it even more inane than it already is.”

“Ah, now I know how to get your goat!”  Peg laughed and slipped down under the covers.

After the lights were off, Peg laid the back of her hand against her cheek and let the lingering fragrance of Bunny’s lilac perfume send her into a fantasy of picnics in springtime with Bunny, wandering by a brook with Bunny.  These soft images gave way to more adventurous scenes, with Peg and Bunny galloping on horses, fleeing from pursuing sheikhs or villainous cowboys.  She drifted off with a smile on her face.

 

“Come on, Bunny, we’re going to be late for Violet’s retirement party,” Peg urged, as she pulled her friend out of the office and along the corridor.

“Honestly, Peg, she’s only 45, how can she be retiring?”

“Have you seen her lately?  That gown is really starting to slip off her shoulders.  I swear she’s shrinking!”

“Oh, Peg, that’s utter nonsense.  Do stop pulling, I’m going to break a heel.”

“Besides, after these last few years, we really need a good party.”

They fetched up in the lunchroom, which had been rescued from its usual drab existence by a few streamers and rather tired looking balloons.  A large two-tiered cake stood on the center table, with a model of Violet on top done in sugar icing. 

Violet stood nearby, almost unrecognizable in a smart suit and a tiny flowered hat on her head.  A small handbag hung from one of her arms, and she was smiling cherubically, and, at least to Peg’s mind, a bit frighteningly. 

She whispered to Bunny as they stood just inside the door, “You know, it wouldn’t surprise me if she doesn’t just sneak in at night and file things, even after she’s gone.”

Bunny chuckled and nodded.  “I was talking to Susie in Accounting the other day, and she says that strange things do happen with the files now and then.”

“Ya see?  I’m right.”

“Do you know, Peg, I’ve been here for 10 years now, and I’ve never even heard her speak.  Have you?”

Peg thought for a moment, and then said, “I never have.  I wonder if she ever does.  Let’s ask Jack in the Advertising dept.  He’s the one who’s been photographing her all these years.”

They tracked down Jack later, and he confirmed that, indeed, the mysterious Violet never said a word.  No one knew why, it was lost in the legends of the company’s early days.

Fortified with this knowledge and a piece of cake and a cup of punch, Peg and Bunny returned to the Reference Library. 

Millie had quit right after the war started in 1941, to do her bit in a munitions factory.  She said it was to honor her Bill, who was flying planes in the Pacific.  Doris was still there, but not for long, she was getting married, so they had a new recruit named Sylvia Blair.  She was a statuesque blonde, straight out of Bryn Mawr, who looked like she should be hosting a soiree on the Upper East Side, not giving the pertinent facts about the island of Fiji to anyone who called and asked for them.

But Peg and Bunny had quickly seen beyond the blonde exterior, and had already made her one of the group.  In fact, Peg felt a little jealous of the time that Bunny had been giving to Sylvia, mentoring her and encouraging her. 

Over the last ten years, Bunny had been getting raises and had been slowly moved towards manager of the reference library.  Mrs. Barkley had obviously started to groom her as her replacement.  At first, Bunny had been worried that Peg was being passed over.  But in fact, Peg was following along right after Bunny, and she knew that when Bunny took over for Mrs. Barkley, she’d have Bunny’s position as supervisor. 

They now had separate apartments but they might as well have been still bunking in, because they were at each other’s places as often as they were at their own.  They had lunch together most of the working days, unless they were lunching with a man, and they had a standing girl’s night every Friday night, if neither of them had a date.

Peg treasured their girls’ nights, out on the town or at each other’s apartments, comparing notes on life and men and anything else they could find to talk about.  They shared books with each other, and went to films and drooled over Cary Grant and Clark Gable together.  They also found themselves sharing their admiration for the talents of Greer Garson and Joan Fontaine, not really acknowledging that it was their beauty as well as their talent that attracted both of them to those actresses.

Peg had had a steady stream of boyfriends.  They only ever lasted about a month, and they never ever got at all serious.  If the word “love” was mentioned by anyone, the man was never seen again.  Peg never felt very sad at these endings, and she was never sure why.

Bunny only had a few men in her life, but they each lasted a lot longer than any of Peg’s.  Good-looking, devil-may-care types who thought they wanted a smart woman, until they realized just how smart she was and how capable, and then they burned out like a piece of film caught in a projector, leaving Bunny wounded and weeping silently in Peg’s arms. 

She hated seeing Bunny hurt like that, but she couldn’t deny how much she relished being the one that Bunny always turned to.

They were both currently between men, and so they had been seeing a lot of each other, both at work and outside of the office.  The night after Violet’s retirement party, Peg and Bunny took Sylvia and Doris out with them for drinks at a jazz club.  Sylvia and Doris had other plans, but Peg and Bunny went on to have dinner and go to another club to have more drinks and some dancing.

About 1 in the morning, they poured themselves into a cab and headed off to drop Bunny at her apartment before Peg took the cab to her place.  When they reached Bunny’s, Bunny got out and stumbled slightly against the cab. 

“Oh, boy, Miss Watson, I think I should see you to your door, before you break the heel off one of those beautiful black shoes.”

Bunny gave a drunken version of her wicked chuckle, which Peg found even more enticing, and said, in the worst Southern accent ever, “Why, Miss Costello, I do believe that you are correct.  If you would do me that kindness, I would be forever grateful.”

Peg paid the cabbie and then the two friends shepherded each other in through the door, waving and giggling at the doorman and then the elevator man.  When they reached her floor, Bunny opened her clutch and started fumbling for her keys.  She dropped them at least three times on the way down the corridor, before Peg finally took them from her and opened Bunny’s door.

They almost fell through it, laughing and kicking off their shoes.  Their coats were dropped and lay where they fell and they headed for the drinks cart. 

“I don’t know if we should have any more alcohol, Peg, my head’s going to be bursting tomorrow!”

“Do you have all the ingredients for Peg’s famous hangover cure?”

“Not sure.  I’ll check.”

Bunny slammed around in the kitchen cupboards and pulled down Worcestershire sauce and bitters and checked the supply of eggs in her fridge. 

“All present and correct, ma’am”

“Then we shall continue to drink our cares away, Miss Watson!”

“Indubit-ablablely, Miss Holmes!”

The levels on the rum and brandy went down a bit. 

Sprawled next to each other on Bunny’s couch, they were taking turns trying to recite Longfellow’s Hiawatha, interspersed with much giggling, when suddenly Peg just stopped.  She focused owlishly on the lovely inebriated face of her dearest friend, as she laughed and stumbled her way forward through the impossibly long Indian names. 

Then Peg found herself leaning closer and closer, watching that beautiful wide mouth, with the oddly down-turned corners.  Then she kissed her.  Peg kissed her dearest friend Bunny full on the mouth, inexpertly at first, owing to her inebriated state, but Bunny, at first still laughing against the kiss, began to kiss her back.

This surprised Peg, but didn’t deter her, and she deepened the kiss, moving forward as Bunny lay back against the cushions and her arms slipped around Peg.  The taste of rum and brandy and Bunny was as intoxicating as the feel of her lips and the tightness of Bunny’s arms around her. 

It seemed like the kiss lasted forever, but when it did end, and Peg pulled slightly away to look at her friend, Bunny’s eyes were shining, and starry, and her breathing was quick and light.

“Oh, Peg,” was all that Bunny could manage to say.  Peg was feeling a little soberer as she realized what she had just done.  She began to pull back further and tried to sit up a little straighter, bracing herself against the back of the couch as she did so.

“Bunny, I don’t know –“ she began but Bunny put a finger against her lips.

“Peg o’ my heart, don’t say anything.  You don’t have to.  It’s our little secret.”  Bunny gave a low laugh.  “Done it before, you know.”

“You have?  When?” Peg demanded.

“At school, of course.  Girls’ school.  Private.  Freezing dormitories, no boys, burgeoning young women, all that sort of thing.  Never went any further than a bit of kissing, really, but it kept you warm.”

Peg blushed, not something she did often.  “Oh, yeah, I’ve read about that.  Saw that German film, too.  Wasn’t sure it really happened.  Huh.”  She debated being jealous or sad, but opted for brazening it out.  “So how was I?”

“Oh, definitely one of the best lady kisses I’ve ever had, dearest Peg.  If I didn’t like men so much – well, you know.”

“Well, good to know.  Definitely prefer the men, myself, but hey, if they all died out tomorrow, I wouldn’t be terribly sad.”

“I think it’s time for some coffee, don’t you?  Or shall we just sleep it off and have that hangover cure in the morning?” asked Bunny, starting to pry herself up and out of the couch cushions.

“Sleep, time to knit up that old raveling sleeve of care.  But I think I’ll take the couch.”

They took turns in the bathroom and then stumbled off to sleep.

 

Breakfast the next morning consisted of Peg’s hangover cure and a bit of dry toast.  They studiously avoided any discussion of the night before, until it was time for Peg to head back to her apartment.

Bunny walked her to the door and Peg started to open it, then closed it and turned around, leaning against the door instead.

“Look, Bunny, last night, that kiss, it was just a bit of high spirits, ya know?  That, and well, you’re just about the best friend I’ve ever had, and I don’t want anything to happen to that, so there.  I’ve said my piece, and I’ll just go now—“

Bunny grasped Peg’s shoulders and for a moment, Peg thought there might be a repeat of last night’s hijinks.  But instead, Bunny pulled her into a fierce hug, and said into her ear, “You’re my best friend, too, you crazy.  Nothing you ever do will break that friendship, nothing.”  She let Peg go and stepped back.  “So you just stop worrying and go off and have a wonderful rest of your day.  You’ve got that date with Dan tonight, don’t you?   He’s taking you to the Copacabana, so exciting!”

“Ah, I’ve been there loads of times,” Peg scoffed, trying to appear unimpressed.  But she couldn’t keep it up, and gave an excited giggle.  “What am I saying?  I love that place, and it’s Benny Goodman tonight!”

“Well, then off you go, Peg!  Have a lovely time!  I’ll see you on Monday.”

Peg gave her another brief hug and hurried out.

She thought about taking a cab, but decided she’d walk.  The sun wasn’t too bright for her hung-over eyes, and her apartment was only a few blocks down and over.  The April morning was clear and a bit chilly, good for clearing her head.

And boy, did it need clearing.  What had she thought she was doing last night!?  Won’t be drinking that much again any time soon.  Not without a bunch of food in her stomach first. 

She knew Bunny held no grudge, but that it would never happen again.  She was going to start seeing Dan Goldfarb from Accounting, and Bunny was going to see if she could actually reel in that new guy, Mike Cutler.  The kiss would just be a drunken memory, fondly recalled but no more than that.  Peg felt saddened somewhere deep inside by this realization, but her and Bunny’s friendship was more important than anything, and she wouldn’t ever jeopardize it again.

They would be best friends forever.

 

 


End file.
